While drivers of the past had to worry about the trees that bottleneck the fairway off the left, DeChambeau will likely be unfazed. Woods hit it so far in 1997 that even when he missed way to the right with his approach, he still had a pitching wedge in hand and could hoist his ball up over the trees to the right side of the green. Throughout the ’90s, Davis Love III, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods drove it superlong on this hole. Okay, it was a 1-iron from 240 yards, but you get the point. Nicklaus did that in 1975 with a drive just long enough that he could play an iron into the green. The job of the bomber is to make it a little easier on themselves than it is for everyone else. Many a great player has come undone staring down the hill at water short and water long and an isthmus green in between. Nicklaus calls the second shot on 15 one of the most important in any Masters. It’s exactly the game DeChambeau hopes to harness on 13: one long drive, one smooth wedge, one eagle putt. Ben Crenshaw asked GOLF’s Alan Shipnuck at the time, “What game is he playing? It isn’t golf.” Peter Kostis saw where the ball landed and was reduced to laughter. On Sunday in 2014, Watson pounded his drive 366 yards, out around the bend. The landing zone there is enormous, and even though the fairway slopes to the left and the green slopes to the right, having just 170 yards into the hole is the stuff green-jacket dreams are made of. He’s focused on the end of the tree line on the right, where a trio of lonely, leafy towers hangs out between the 13th and 14th fairways. He isn’t thinking about those trees on the left or the creek that snakes along beneath them. Where many players will have to bend a perfect draw around the corner to find the A position, Bryson aims to just go up and over all of it. When asked this summer about the upcoming Masters, DeChambeau said simply, “I’m just going to unleash.” Arguably, no hole will allow the big dog to eat quite as ravenously as the 13th. Hitting wedge into this hole four days in a row would almost certainly guarantee Bryson at least one stroke on the field - and that’s what bombing is all about. But for a guy whose average drive this season was 322 yards, it’s more than feasible. Recently, when he was asked what club he’s hoping to pull for his approach, DeChambeau said, “A wedge, ideally,” which probably had some old-timers chuckling. In 1997, Tiger again played an 8-iron into this green, but only because he throttled down to a 2-iron off the tee.
#DOWNHILL SMASH PINK FIELDS DRIVER#
Even though the hole has been lengthened by about 20 yards since the ’90s, Bryson is going to hope to do exactly what Tiger did in ’05: smash driver and smooth a land-and-stop 8-iron pin-high. Virtually every approach shot into this hole is downhill, so the shorter the iron the better. That’s how you settle into a tense final round, even in ’97, when he held an 11-shot lead. Tiger found this sweet spot in 1997 and again in 2005, when he played a smooth 8-iron in for an effortless, two-putt birdie. This year, a 320-yard draw off the center of the fairway will catch a speed slot that runs down toward the green. End up there and you start thinking about your flight home.Ī good drive on 2 brings birdie into play, but a great drive makes eagle possible. If he yanked it left, he’d be in the trees - the “Delta ticket booth,” as he called it. The drive is one that Nicklaus says used to give him fits. But it can bite you if you’re not careful off the tee. Play it well and you’re off and running at the Masters. 2, Pink Dogwood - Par 5, 575 yardsĪugusta’s 2nd hole might be the best table-setter in golf. Here are the holes where Bryson can find his edge. The tees at ANGC have been pushed back over the decades, but for select power players of each generation, the course has been - dare we say it - gettable. Jack won by nine in 1965, when he was 25 and known to rip it 300 yards. Tiger won by 12 in ’97, when he averaged 323 off the tee - 25 yards longer than everyone in the field. In other words, find these spots and you uncover a different Augusta National. That’s what I’m trying to do, to give myself more options.”
Open champ, “he could get to places nobody else could. “When you look at Tiger in 1997,” says the newly minted U.S.
This year’s biggest bomber - the hulk who dismantled Winged Foot in September - is keen to follow suit. Bubba Watson, too, who powered his way to wins in 20. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods know them and rode them to a combined 11 green jackets. These are scoring zones, and everyone knows them.īut just a handful of players in Masters history know the other spots - the areas on the course that only the game’s longest hitters have reached. To stay in the hunt at Augusta National Golf Club, you want to get to “the spots.” Right of the bunker on hole No.
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